


exertion

by artsyspikedhair



Series: violence and the repercussions [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Obscurial Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 05:55:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17461880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair
Summary: November 1st





	exertion

Harry woke up with the same exhaustion he had spent every November 1st in memory with. The exhaustion was an old friend at this point, a reminder that he was, unfortunately, alive to suffer another day of monotonous torture.

Only this November 1st, he woke up naturally, to the light entering the windows of Gryffindor Tower. This Nomber 1st, he was not in the bed on the second floor of #4 Privet Drive, the screeching of his aunt ushering him to his cupboard worsening his headache. This November 1st, he woke up to the snores of Seamus Finnigan, the sounds of Dean Thomas showering in their shared bathroom.

Harry Potter rubbed his sleep-crusted eyes, grabbed his glasses with one hand, sat up and looked to the right, where his best friend should have been snoring peacefully or grumbling as he dressed.

"Where's Ron?"

The only person in the room able to answer that question was Neville. 

"Ron- ohHarry I forgot you weren't at the feast! A- a troll somehow got into the castle and y'know how Ron's always insulting Hermione?" Harry nodded, the dread in his stomach increasing. "Well she was crying in the girls' bathroom and didn't attend the feast so she didn't know about the troll. Ron felt guilty because he was the reason she didn't know so he-" Neville's blinking back tears.

"Neville-" Harry began, terrified, "Neville, tell me Ron didn't find the troll! Tell me he asked a prefect to find her and she's okay and he's okay and they're all in the prefect's lounge laughing it up." Neville began crying in earnest at Harry's pleading, wishing more than anything what Harry had said was correct.

"Ron's alive. He found the bathroom Hermione was inside but he came in as the troll was biting her head off. He got hit by the club. He's unconscious and in the Hospital Wing. I'm sorry, Harry."

nononono Ron's his friend this can't be happening can't be - cancelled because he will not allow Ron to be hurt he could have been the death he should have been the one to die he-

Harry's body began flickering. Neville thought it was accidental magic at first as the room was shaking but the body disappeared. Harry was nowhere but a black cloud of smoke was where Harry had been.

"McGonagall!!!" Neville ran out of the room screaming. He ran straight to McGonagall's office in the Gryffindor Tower. She was there, and Neville babbled out the story of what happened.

"You were right to contact me, Mr. Longbottom. Two points to Gryffindor." 

The Obscurial wrecked the Gryffindor Common Room. He was headed straight to the hospital wing. But first, his rage against the school released itself as a storm. He shattered everything in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Being an Obscurial felt like crying, like punching Dudley in his fat sneering face, like magic.

Harry humanized outside the hospital wing. He didn't know how he knew where it was, but he had. 

"Madam Pomfrey?" Harry asked, knowing that asking questions about what had just happened to him would be the most likely way to see if Neville had told the truth.

"Yes, dear?" The mediwitch exited her office as Harry entered the room. He was sort of scared about what had just happened - he never lost control like that before - but not as scared as anyone who knew what he was would have been.

"I think something is wrong with me. I just sort of lost my physical form about twenty minutes ago. I was scared and in denial about the troll situation yesterday, and angry," Harry added, knowing from Magical Theory class that magic was fueled by emotion and intensity of intention. 

"Sit down on one of the beds here," the mediwitch said. Harry followed instructions, and, to his dismay, saw his friend floating through the air on his back, monitored by wards and in a state of intubation. His hands began shifting again but Harry forced himself to focus on the positives. Ron was alive, and he had medical care. Harry survived in similar circumstances without medical care, Harry thought, although he had no idea what the troll actually did to his friend. Ron was alive. Harry had not lost his only human friend.

Meanwhile, Madam Pomfrey cast an array of diagnostic charms, fearing that the boy-who-lived might have Blasting Sickness (a virus that passed through Blast-Ended Skrewts before infecting primates. Hagrid could've passed it on to Harry, that was Madam Pomfrey's theory).

But the results were far worse than Blasting Sickness. As she tried the spell again to ensure she hadn't miscast, Professor McGonagall came in. 

"Madam- oh, Mr. Potter, you're already here. Neville told me what happened and I had just came here to make sure Madam Pomfrey knew, but it appears you're all set-" The witch prepared to leave for breakfast when the mediwitch stopped here.

"Professor, we need to discuss Mr. Potter's health. In my office, please!"

They exited the main hospital wing, leaving Harry to more thoroughly examine his friend. Ron had purple potions entering his arm like an IV, and another green potion entering his head through a tube in his ear. That potion looked similar to the Concussion Reducter Potion Harry had read about in his textbook, only the consistency was different. Ron's eyes were closed, and he had bruises on the areas of skin Harry could see, which was not a lot.

In the office, Madam Pomfrey showed the results on a sheet of parchment. "I haven't seen mind shields this damaged since You-Know-Who's days of the war! Whoever did this to him was a professional Legilmens - had I been an ordinary school mediwitch I wouldn't be able to see these results the assailent left so little magical residue behind! And the injuries! How - how could an eleven year old boy receive a perineal injury?!"

"I don't know what that is, Poppy. This list is enormously worrying though, and the only Legilimens on campus is Severus and the Headmaster."

"You don't want to know - just, perineal refers to the area between the scrotum and the anus."

"Oh my - and the injuries began at age six! He- why would anyone want to Legilimens him?"

"I don't know, Minerva. What I do know, however, is that restoring the mental health of Mr. Potter will take a long long time, and the diagnostics still don't have the cause for his magical incorporeal form!"

"Well, as his Head of House, I could - I don't know what to do." 

As the two witches talked, Harry began to fall into a funk. He dissociated. Then, he remembered he hadn't eaten anything yet.

"Madam Pomfrey, may I go to breakfast?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter, but if the foggy sensation comes back I want you to return here as soon as you reform.

"Yes ma'am!" And Harry left.


End file.
